In honor of Remembrance Day and stopping to think about both those who have been lost in the current war and also those who lost their lives in previous conflicts, I wanted to share a photo of my dad. He was stationed overseas in England. There are many letters from that time that my mother saved for whatever reason (she actually didn’t discard much during her lifetime which it turns out was a good thing, sort of). Although these were their private thoughts to each other, it certainly sheds a bit of light on how things were during the infancy of their marriage. My mother was very young when she married… just 17….. whereas my father was 26. He had already signed up a few short months before and was sent off soon after they married. It was quite a hardship for such a young woman, and who was not prepared to be left alone and then to be left alone so soon with a young baby. Those were difficult times, and certainly difficult for other wives, mothers and fathers. Fortunately my father came back and physically in one piece.
Anyway, in remembrance, our past mistakes are there to hopefully prevent us from repeating them. God bless to those who are in the thick of the conflict. Let them come home soon to their families….. healthy and in one piece.
Something very interesting happened to me about 2 weeks ago. A card arrived in the post from a couple in Arizona. The envelope wasn’t addressed to me but was addressed to a “Mr. and Mrs. G. Foreman”; the address was mine but the name certainly didn’t match. Of course I had to open the envelope to discover who was meant to receive the card and it indeed was a condolence card for Gord and Janice Forman. Gord’s father Charles Lee Forman had passed away at the age of 90 in October. A bit of searching the Winnipeg Free Press obits led me to the following obituary (double click the photo to enlarge). 
Upon a bit more searching I found Gord and Janice’s address in Winnipeg and redirected the card and included a card from myself and a small note along with a very old picture. It seems that Lee was my father’s first cousin. My grandfather James Harris Foreman and Lee’s father Ernest Forman were brothers. In fact they are listed together in the 1906 Canadian Census as living in Rivers district. As recently as within the last 10 years in Kimberley BC Lee’s brother Chester and his wife Helen attended my sister Linda’s wedding.
Today I spoke with Gord Forman who was grateful for the picture that was sent. In fact he had never seen a picture of his grandfather’s home in Rivers and to this day could only imagine it from descriptions. Gord and I had a lovely discussion and hopefully we can meet and compare photos. Gord told me a very serendipitous story which I won’t repeat here, so that I will have the opportunity to share another post a bit later.
My condolences to the Lee Forman family and to Chester who has lost a brother.
